The Election Commission convened a full‑body meeting on Saturday, September 26, amid growing criticism of its handling of the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls.
The commission announced that electors who receive SIR notices for being unmapped or having logical discrepancies will no longer be required to appear before an Electoral Registration Officer in person. Instead, Booth Level Officers will visit the electors’ homes to collect the necessary documents and upload them to the ECINET portal. Only in exceptional circumstances will a hearing be called, and those hearings will be conducted online.
In a separate move, the commission extended the deadline for filing claims and objections in Delhi to October 30, 2026, and the disposal of notices to November 30, 2026, following a request from the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer. Maharashtra’s filing deadline was pushed to October 12, 2026, with disposal of notices set for November 10, 2026.
To aid vulnerable groups, district election officers were ordered to set up help desks and special camps for night‑shelter residents, labourers, and the homeless, while a committee headed by a Senior Deputy Election Commissioner will audit the ECINET portal. The committee, including an independent expert from an IIT or IIIT, is expected to submit its report by December 2026, and all new IT initiatives will now be vetted by the Committee of Officers before full commission approval.
The commission reiterated that the SIR order, issued on June 24, 2025, was adopted unanimously and has been upheld by the Supreme Court in its May 27, 2026 ruling. It also clarified that a recent letter to the Cabinet Secretary concerned an officer’s deputation, not policy or IT matters.